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Opinion Contributor

The recipe for recovery

Members of Congress have spent the past few weeks in their districts, meeting with constituents and hearing their concerns. House Democrats have held more than 1,800 events in their districts this past work period.

What I’ve heard in Maryland and across the country is this: We’ve made progress in coming back from the biggest economic crisis of our lifetime, but the pace of our recovery remains frustrating. Families are still struggling with unemployment, foreclosures and economic insecurity. Responding to that insecurity and building on the progress we’ve already made continues to be Congress’s No. 1 priority.

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At the top of the list is the Make It in America agenda, a plan to boost manufacturing, strengthen the work force and fight for a fair playing field for American companies that compete abroad.

For generations, Americans have looked to manufacturing as a source of pride — and of secure, middle-class jobs. Today, restoring our manufacturing sector is one of the best ways to make America prosperous for the long run. And we have momentum to build on: The U.S. manufacturing sector has expanded for 13 straight months.

President Barack Obama has already signed into law Make It in America bills that will make it cheaper for American companies to obtain the materials they need to manufacture goods, speed innovation by breaking the backlog of patents awaiting approval and close tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas.

More Make It in America bills are awaiting Senate action, including legislation that builds job-training partnerships among businesses, unions and educators; directs the president to work with industry and state leaders to develop a national manufacturing strategy every four years; helps clean energy firms compete at home and abroad; and combats the trade imbalance that harms U.S. job creation.

This week, Democrats are set to bring to the House floor two bills ensuring the Homeland Security Department and the legislative branch buy American-made products whenever possible. For the remainder of this Congress, Democrats will continue to bring to the floor bills that boost manufacturing. We hope that Republicans will join us in supporting them.

In addition, Congress will give serious consideration to the president’s proposal to use targeted tax policy to spur job creation. The options include a permanent research-and-development tax credit, which will make it easier for businesses to innovate, expand and bring new products to market; and a tax write-off for business investments in plant and equipment.

Readers' Comments (23)

Any legislation that requires anymore spending will not be tolerated. No matter how they try to justify it, Enough is Enough. Let this play out and reset. Just throwing money at everything isn't working. The people will not buy that argument anymore !

Mr. Hoyer, while I agree that we must see "Made in U.S.A." on millions more products before we can begin to fully recover economically, half measures and tepid regulations aren't enough. I'm glad you are starting to come out a little more forcefully against the Republican politicians, sometimes the best defense is a very strong offense. But please don't exaggerate, tell it like it is. While I think it's a good idea in theory to require government agencies to purchase goods "Made in U.S.A." we have to have them made here first! I have proposed a direct line of credit, ( similar to the infrastructure bank ) to real small businesses ( brick and mortar, less than 50 employees ) with long term low interest rates, to allow us to purchase goods at competitive rates ( to compete with internet pricing ) rent larger, better located retail spaces, and then outfit them using local construction and labor forces. I would also like to see an infrastructure tax placed on all internet sales go directly to the states, to help level the playing field for those small businesses and help the states who have truly lost revenue because of non-taxable sales on the internet, but whose goods travel over state roads and bridges, and are regulated and protected by local police and stop lights and street lights etc.

1. Those internet sales that aren't taxed are small businesses mostly as large companies are required to collect tax on sales in states where they operate. Purchase something at BestBuy.com and tell me how you get out of the sales tax. Buy the same thing from some guy in an apartment off of Ebay and it is not taxed and is often cheaper.

2. Free trade is awesome, but it must be fair. Here are the 2 rules we must have. Our laws and tarriffs etc. match whomever we are trading with. If you are wide open, we are, if you are paying your workers in the specific industry comparable wages and benefits, no tarriffs. If those two simple rules are followed, all will benefit.

3. Government only drains from the legitimate GDP of any population. Human nature must be accounted for and everything needs to be totally transparant where money is spent. Corruption/cronyism are rampant everywhere. The drag on the economy harms the weakest among us the most.

4. The democrats have put forth the most anti business legislation and regulations i have seen in my lifetime. I can only believe that they will say what they believe we want/need to hear so they can get elected and continue the deflation of American exeptionalism and bring us down to having a fair share of the worlds wealth. Go see these czars on youtube and tell me where i am wrong. Cass Sunstein, Kevin Jennings and on and on, these people are totally commited to the takedown of the USA. WAKE UP PLEASE.

Something is missing in all of these "To tax or not to tax" op-eds.......that is.....HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR IT?

If the Bush tax cuts stay in place in some form.......its going to add to the deficit. Unless spending cuts are made to offset this loss revenue - this will be additional deficit spending. I thought Obama was against? Hell, I thought republicans have been preaching against this as well?

It just goes to show that both parties are just mouthpieces for garbage policies.

How about we let the Bush tax cuts expire, but take the additional tax revenue that would come in from 2011 and 2012 and create a "Tax Holiday" for businesses to aid in the economic recovery. And if the Obama administration doesnt do anything stupid like pass additional pieces of legislation that create more uncertainty in the market - this "middle of the road" approach should work.

Once the deficit is brought under control - then we can start talking about making permanent additional tax cuts across the board.

What we have right now is a "Dont take my goodies away from me!" mentality. Nobody wants any of their special goodies taken away from them but everybody think the government should cut spending.

At this point in time, I dont know how anyone could be "ok" with additional government intervention in the markets. Take a look around, there's corruption and cronyism everywhere you look. The healthcare market is case in point. It wouldnt anywhere near as complicated or corrupt if the government did not decide to inject itself so heavily into the marketplace in the 70s. The track record for the government actually "helping" markets become more efficient is rather dismal.....and this is why I would oppose any additional effort by the government to inject itself into areas it would not actually help.

You must also take into consideration that any "tax" on internet sales will only create additional black markets for people to escape taxes. If you think that infrastructure spending is lacking, then you should petition your local government to increase spending in these areas. What people fail to recognize is that federal intervention in state budgets are at levels that have probably never been seen before since the 30s. Unfunded mandates by the federal government are a huge liability to state budgets (Medicaid and Education are two great examples of this). I appreciate you coming up with new ideas but I think this idea of an Infrastructure Tax will only lead to abuse by the politicians (why do we keep giving them more power to begin with?) and encourages the irresponsible behavior of our "leaders" in this country for the last 40+ years.

We need to learn from the past before we talk about the future. Unfortunately, we adamently refuse to recognize the errors of the past. Hence, why we continue to repeat them.

Come on, Steny. You know as well as I do that YOU are a major part of WHY the manufacturing in the US is near non-existent. You voted for NAFTA and the other "Free" trade agreements. You agreed with the US joining the World Trade Organization, along with the renewing of our membership to it. And, you KNOW that the WTO does NOT allow individual nations to favor their OWN manufacturing companies.

When Senator Bryon Dorgan (D-ND) included "MADE IN AMERICA FIRST" amendment in the Stimulus bill, you slimey politicians couldn't show your true colors and vote against. But you knew that it was in violation of NAFTA and the WTO agreements. You knew that Mexico could OVERRULE the US Congress and you knew that WTO could OVERRULE the US Congress.

Thanks to prostitutes like yourself, you have been selling pieces of our sovereignty with EACH of your many bills. YOU KNOW that this is only to appease the voters, because as long as we have those god-awful free trade agreements you voted for and as long as we continue to be a member of the WTO, we CANNOT have a "Make It In America" agenda.

Theantidave, I am a small business owner and I have managed several very successful multi-million dollar retail businesses as well, I've talked to hundreds of customers these past few years who will buy something over the internet because they don't have to pay tax on a new item, not e-bay. I also know several managers of shipping warehouses ( fedex, and lasership ) who tell me their biggest customer is Amazon.com.

I just shake my head in disbelief everytime I see some politician claim that offereing tax incentives in the form of write-offs will spur more jobs. What good is offering a 2 or 3 thousand dollar tax credit to hire a new employee when the economy is doing so poorly. Let's see.... a company hires a new employee to make or sell a product that doesn't have customers to purchase it. Only in the government can they believe that some poor idiot will spend 50 to 100 thousand to hire a person just so they can get a small tax credit while no-one is buying their products.

I wish Hoyer would approach some of the corporations that are the darlings of the democrat party to see if he can get them to move, or keep their manufacturing in this country. The dems favorite - General Electric is getting ready to close many of their light bulb manufacturing plants in this country when incandescent lightbulbs are outlawed. Those GE plants are moving to China. Does GE hate this country and just wants to move to China to save money, or is the dangerous mercury used in the new lightbulbs such a hazard that GE wants to avoid OSHA regulation and environmental issues?

Another darling of the dems and liberals is Apple. Why didn't Mr. Hoyer try to talk the manufacturer of the Apple Ipads into making that product in this country? Apple's manufacturer is building a new plant in China that will employ 250,000 workers. It would have been nice to see that plant in this country. Mr. Hoyer should get together a blue ribbon panel of people from GE, Apple and other favorite companies that the liberal love and have a discussion on C-span on why they are not manufacturing in this country. I would much rather hear the leaders of major US corporations tell us how to bring manufacturing back to this country than some tired old democrat politician puppeting his parties talking points.

Rep. Hoyer's proposal will make our economy worse, not better. What he's proposing is nothing less than starting a trade war. That's exactly the mistake the United States made back in the early 1930's, when Congress enacted the disastrous Smoot Hawley Tariff.

If Hoyer is serious about bringing manufacturing back to our shores he'll back cuts in marginal tax rates and the creation of a stable, predictable economic climate. That means (1) repealing the chaotic mess of a Health "Reform" Bill he pushed through and replacing it with a simple, sensible law that promotes consumer choice and (2) making clear his commitment to low energy prices.

Over the past 30-40 years revenues have equalled approximately 18% of GDP regardless of tax rates. Only in the last 20 so years has spending increased to exceed this percentage of revenues. Bush pushed spending as a percentage of GDP into the low 20s. Obama has pushed it upwards toward 30%. No level of tax rate increases will close the deficit without spending, including entitlements, restraint.

Didn't Steny tell us the STIMULUS was the recipe for Recovery and the OBAMAcare bill was the recipe for recovery, and that getting out of Iraq was the recipe for recovery and that Obama was the recipe for recovery and so on and so n and son on...... does he really think he has an ounce of credibility left.

I like the way they spend money to save money. Hey, Washington: Why not simply dis the entire false flag Homeland Suppression bit all together, and let Americans alone. We do not need more government, we need less medal some and smaller government. If we need someone to stage a false flag terror campaigns and crash jet liners into tall buildings with pinpoint accuracy, we'll call you.